“"The continuous power of the moving image as both self-reflection and time machine is analyzed, dissected, and painstakingly pieced back together to present a narrative of the local film that becomes national and global in its interpretation. Martin L. Johnson presents a thousand faces as a movement of film history. … He has taken a footnote in the early days of the movies in the United States and given it the platform this scholarship deserves." ”
 — Vanessa Toulmin, author of, Electric Edwardians: The Story of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection

“"A significant contribution to the study of the history of American film practice [and] reception."”
 — Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley author of, At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture

“This carefully researched and nuanced account of local film history is essential reading for researchers and students who are interested in understanding the evolution of film culture as it played out beyond Hollywood.”
 — Early Popular Visual Culture

“[A] quietly radical rewriting of American film history since the 1910s. ”
 — Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television